N° 32–2001: Environment satellite goes on tour

22 May 2001

On 31 May the European Space Agency (ESA) starts a year-long travelling exhibition about its new environment satellite, Envisat. The largest and most up-to-date satellite for earth observation ever built will be presented at fourteen cities across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From the inaugural event in Berlin, the show will continue on to Mannheim, Lucerne, Saarbruecken, Munich and Zurich.

Envisat weighs eight tonnes and has been several years in the making. This October it will be launched into space to start searching for answers to questions about pollution and global warming, using some of the most sophisticated instruments available in the world.

The importance of the Envisat mission is highlighted by a sobering report issued recently by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warning of drastic climate change linked to pollution and demanding immediate action. For this, scientists will require detailed data on the sources and mechanisms of pollution and on the complex system of interactions between the oceans, land masses and the atmosphere.

The travelling exhibition will present some of the uses of the data which will be gathered by Envisat, such as predicting changes to the ozone layer and warning of imminent natural disasters. The exhibition will also explain the scientific background of the mission.

Representatives of the media are invited to attend the opening press conference with Siegmar Mosdorf, the parliamentary undersecretary for the German federal ministry of economy, and Michael Rast, an expert working in ESA's Earth Observation Directorate. It will be held at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin at 11:00 on 31 May. A form is enclosed for registration by fax.

Exhibition dates:

27.05. - 17.06.2001 Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin

20.06. - 08.07.2001 Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim

11.07. - 19.08.2001 Verkehrshaus Luzern

13.09. - 25.09.2001 Haus der Zukunft Saarbrücken

28.09. - 21.10.2001 Deutsches Museum München

16.10. - 11.11.2001 Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Other locations are being prepared for the exhibition in Germany (Bremen, Hamburg, Dresden, Nuremberg, Oberhausen, Sinsheim), Austria (Vienna) and Switzerland (Winterthur).